Tomorrow, 16 teams of inventors, hackers and engineers will gather in a secret laboratory in Brooklyn for the start of the ultimate DIY showdown. That's when the teams who reached the finals of the Red Bull Creation Contest will finally find out the ultimate DIY project they'll have to face. After that, they will have only 72 hours to create a working invention that fits that theme, with each group scavenging material from all over New York City to use in its creation.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Red Bull Creation is one of the most intense, pressure-packed DIY competitions in the country. In the qualifying rounds, teams had to build the actual invitation, and then decipher their task, from a box of circuit boards and memory keys mailed to them. That task turned out to be reinventing an object from history and making it better. We liked the time-traveling radio by team i3Detroit.

Now it's time for the finals. The 72-hour build-a-thon that starts with the project announcement tomorrow will end when the creations go on display at McCarren Park in Brooklyn at 3 p.m. Sunday (though teams can keep building until 7). Then, they'll be judged by a panel that includes PM senior technology editor Glenn Derene. The winning teams get $10,000 cash and $10,000 worth of tools—and all that glory.

More From Popular Mechanics

If you can't make it to Brooklyn for this DIY extravaganza, PM will provide continuing coverage.